scholarly journals Stem alternations in Kiranti and their implications for the morphology–phonology interface

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-43
Author(s):  
BORJA HERCE
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Inflection ◽  
Distributional Similarity

Stem alternation is present in the verbal inflection of all documented Kiranti languages, where it ranges from the straightforward phonologically conditioned (e.g. Athpariya and Chintang) to the purely morphological and baroque (e.g. Khaling and Dumi). This paper surveys stem alternation patterns across the whole family. Its main finding is that, unlike the morphological stem alternations of West Kiranti, the phonologically-conditioned stem alternations of East Kiranti are characterized by a very striking distributional similarity (often identity) across languages, even in the presence of quite drastic affixal changes. This and other findings suggest that these stem alternation patterns should be regarded as a (morphomic) grammatical phenomenon of its own right, despite being derivable from the forms of suffixes. Furthermore, comparison with West Kiranti suggests that this coextensiveness with a coherent phonological environment actually enhances some typically morphomic traits such as diachronic resilience and productivity.

scholarly journals Interrogating the Egypto-Sudanic Arabic Connection

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Leddy-Cecere
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Verbal Inflection ◽  
Segmental Phonology ◽  
Language Data ◽  
History Of ◽  
Novel Method ◽  
Dialect Classification ◽  
Arabic Speaking

The Arabic dialectology literature repeatedly asserts the existence of a macro-level classificatory relationship binding the Arabic speech varieties of the combined Egypto-Sudanic area. This proposal, though oft-encountered, has not previously been formulated in reference to extensive linguistic criteria, but is instead framed primarily on the nonlinguistic premise of historical demographic and genealogical relationships joining the Arabic-speaking communities of the region. The present contribution provides a linguistically based evaluation of this proposed dialectal grouping, to assess whether the postulated dialectal unity is meaningfully borne out by available language data. Isoglosses from the domains of segmental phonology, phonological processes, pronominal morphology, verbal inflection, and syntax are analyzed across six dialects representing Arabic speech in the region. These are shown to offer minimal support for a unified Egypto-Sudanic dialect classification, but instead to indicate a significant north–south differentiation within the sample—a finding further qualified via application of the novel method of Historical Glottometry developed by François and Kalyan. The investigation concludes with reflection on the implications of these results on the understandings of the correspondence between linguistic and human genealogical relationships in the history of Arabic and in dialectological practice more broadly.

scholarly journals 12. Verbal inflection in Yoloxóchitl Mixtec

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrique L. Palancar ◽  
Jonathan D. Amith ◽  
Rey Castillo García
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Inflection

Lithuanian Inflection

2015 ◽  
pp. 446-464
Author(s):  
Axel Holvoet
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Inflection ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Evidential Paradigm

The chapter gives an overview of Lithuanian nominal and verbal inflection and discusses a number of contentious issues involving the demarcation of case and adposition, inflection and derivation, affix and clitic. The first issue is illustrated by the local cases of Old Lithuanian. These involve original postpositions added to case-marked forms. Lithuanian reflexive verb forms raise questions concerning the demarcation of clitics and affixes as well as that of inflection and derivation. A similar indeterminacy between proclitic and affix adheres to aspect, scope, and negation markers added to the verb. Baltic evidentials are an interesting instance of a syntactic phenomenon becoming morphologized and giving rise to an evidential paradigm. Finally, Lithuanian derivational aspect raises problems analogous to those of Slavic aspect, but these are made more complex by the weaker degree of grammaticalization of aspect in Lithuanian.

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